Geoffrey Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales
A Presentation on the
General Prologue
Professor Beamen
Chaucer’s Background
(1343? –1400)
 Known as “the Father of
English Poetry”
 His father was a wine
merchant, so he was neither an
aristocrat nor a peasant
 In his lifetime he was a page
in a royal house, soldier,
diplomat, and royal clerk, so
he had a perfect vantage point
for observing all kinds of
people.
Chaucer’s background (cont’d)
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When Chaucer was a diplomat, one of his tasks was
to go abroad; in doing so he brought back influence
of writers, the most important of which was
Boccaccio’s Decameron.
Many critics say Chaucer did not borrow from
Boccaccio, but even if he did, Shakespeare was
guilty of this same imitatio.
Chaucer was called “English Homer” by
Renaissance historians, and evolved into the
forefather figure of Renaissance English literary
history (Miskimin 58)
Chaucer’s Middle English
Even while Chaucer visits old genres, he is perfecting a new poetic
form. In the Middle Ages, the meters and sound effects of Old
English no longer suited the English language. He adapted French
poetic forms to the English language.
Basis of the Pilgrimage
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Chaucer’s own house in London overlooked the pilgrim
road that led to Canterbury.
The pilgrims are on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas à
Becket, who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by
Henry II.
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Becket was famous for his struggle to keep the English
church free from royal control, which caused tension
between him and Henry II (who eventually had Becket
killed). The shrine built to honor him was later destroyed
by Henry VIII.
“The detail with which Chaucer devotes to his accounts of
the normal life of each pilgrim, serves, by implication, to
emphasize the departure from those lives represented by
the pilgrimage itself” (Martin 55)
Literary Elements
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Social Commentary
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This later bloomed with the invention of the novel
Human nature changes very little (from then until now)
Direct and Indirect Characterization
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Chaucer presents “an astonishing individuality and variety—of
behavior, of posture, of complexion, even…of clothing…” (Nevo 9)
Chaucer’s point was to sharpen our overall perceptions on the basis
of everyday attitudes toward people, of the things we take into
account and the things we willingly ignore (Mann 25).
The description of the various pilgrims turns rapidly from an article
of clothing to a point of character and back again with no apparent
organization. Yet this artful artlessness is so effective that each
pilgrim stands out sharply as a type of medieval personality and also
as a highly individualized character. (Hopper 92)
The Prologue
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There are three basic estates:
Aristocracy (the Knight, Squire, Yeoman)
Clergy (Prioress, Monk, Friar)
Commons (all the rest)
In the Prologue, the pilgrims’ views are not
individual ones, but attached to their callings—in
medieval terms, their estates. The Prologue is a
poem about work as social experience conditions
personality and then a standpoint from which an
individual views the world (Mann 36).
Chaucer (the author) and his Point of View
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Chaucer not only persuades us that fools and rascals can
be very charming people, but he is at the same time
making us suspect that they are fools and rascals.
Chaucer aware that there ought to be meaning in
everything; his works in general contained a lot of
proverbs.
In his works he hints that chivalry is breaking down.
Canterbury Tales represents rising middle class.
Chaucer as Narrator
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Chaucer applies a double irony in appearing as himself masked
in the masquerade.
The narrator himself constantly identifies with the pilgrims’
point of view and encourages us to see the world from this
angle; a large part of the narrator’s criteria for judging is
personal, based on pleasantness, charm, and social
accomplishments. (Mann 30)
Chaucer the pilgrim, the naive narrator of the Prologue, so
often misses the point of the complex phenomena he describes
in order that Chaucer the satirist or the poet or the man can
make sure WE see how very complex they are (Leicester 95).
Money in the Prologue
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Every character has a mention of, or a connection to, money!
Pilgrims are described in terms of how they make a living or
how they go about spending money, or some form of array.
(Eberle 114)
The Prologue is a classification of society based on the various
sources of income in which the pilgrimage is a structural frame
(Nevo 14).
The Prologue is a symbol for “cupidity” Chaucer assumes his
audience has a lively interest in the world of getting and
spending money as well as commerce; which he neither
praises nor condemns; rather, he takes it for granted (Eberle
115) .
Money in the Prologue (cont’d)
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“Gold” plays a big role in the Prologue—
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See Prioress (St. Loy), Monk (his brooch), Clerk,
Doctor, etc.
Sumptuary Laws: dictated what people could
wear: fabrics, decorations, etc.
Clothing was a uniform for some; to what
extent does it define personality?
Characters
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Pilgrims in Canterbury Tales(blank).doc
“Except for the Knight, Parson, Plowman, and
scholar, …these pilgrims are totally taken up with
the world and the flesh.” (Nevo 17)
“Like the Friar, Summoner, and Pardoner, Harry
Bailey knows how to turn a tidy profit from a
religious occasion like a pilgrimage. He comes up
with the idea, for which someone else will have to
pay; meanwhile he’ll collect the profits (Eberle
121).
Why are these pilgrims on this journey? With
whom would you choose to ride?
The Pardoner’s Tale
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Exemplum, archetypal narrative elements
Ironically, the Pardoner’s own tale confirms the connection
of symbols and controls. It concerns the young rioters who
reject both. The rioters, who have little sense of symbolism,
do not acknowledge loyalty to any abstraction like a social
unit, even one of their own making. It is in this sense that it
is a moral tale. The windy sermonizing in the Pardoner’s
Tale—words unnecessary to the plot itself—recalls a
modern idea that words are not the things they stand for.
Words are a symbolic order apart from reality. The pardoner
finds it easy to exploit the falsity inherent in language.
(Justman 130)
Pardoner’s Tale (cont’d)
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The Pardoner has defeated any attempt to trick his
companions by exposing his greed before the tale is
told.
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What the Pardoner says to others partly reflects what he
is already is and what he will be. Chaucer suggests
transformations through the effect of the language of the
tale he chooses to tell (Bloom 3).
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The audience, in a spirit of penance from the
pilgrimage, alters his audience's perspective of his tale
(Martin 58)
Harry Bailey is the only pilgrim who doesn’t seem to
understand this; he gives a violent verbal attack.
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The End
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. “Introduction.” Modern Critical Interpretations:
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers, 1988. 4-7. Print.
Bloomfield, Morton W. “The Canterbury Tales as Framed
Narratives.” Modern Critical Interpretations: Geoffrey
Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.
Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York: Chelsea House Publishers,
1988. 101-112. Print.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Selected): An Interlinear
Translation. Ed. Vincent Foster Hopper. New York:
Barron’s Educational Series. 1970. Print.
Eberle, Patricia J. “Commercial Language and the Commercial
Outlook in the General Prologue.” Modern Critical
Interpretations: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue
to the Canterbury Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. 113-124. Print.
Justman, Stewart. “Literal and Symbolic in the Canterbury Tales.”
Modern Critical Views: Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold
Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 57-78.
Print.
Leicester, H. Marshall. “The Art of Impersonation: A General
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.” Modern Critical
Interpretations: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue
to the Canterbury Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. 85-100. Print.
Mann, Jill. “Medieval Estates Satire and the General
Prologue” Modern Critical Interpretations: Geoffrey
Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York: Chelsea House
Publishers, 1988. 21-36. Print.
Martin, Loy D. “History and Form in the General
Prologue.” Modern Critical Interpretations:
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. 51-66 Print.
Miskiman, Alice S. “From Medieval to Renaissance: Some
Problems in Historical Criticism.” Modern Critical
Views: Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold Bloom.
New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 57-78. Print.
Nevo, Ruth. “Chaucer: Motive and Mask in the General
Prologue.” Modern Critical Interpretations:
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the
Canterbury Tales. Ed. Harold Bloom,. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. 9-20. Print.
Nolan, Barbara. “ ‘A Poet Ther Was’: Chaucer’s Voices in
the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.”
Modern Critical Interpretations: Geoffrey Chaucer’s
The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Ed.
Harold Bloom,. New York: Chelsea House
Publishers, 1988. 125-148. Print.
Parker, David. “Can We Trust the Wife of Bath?” Modern
Critical Views: Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold
Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.
49-56. Print.